Taboo: The Single and the LP

When illegal card dealer and recovering heroin addict Frankie Machine gets out of prison, he decides to straighten up. Armed with nothing but an old drum set, Frankie tries to get honest work as a drummer. But when his former employer and his old drug dealer re-enter his life, Frankie finds it hard to stay clean and eventually finds himself succumbing to his old habits.

Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, "Rashomon" is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife.

A married farmer falls under the spell of a slatternly woman from the city, who tries to convince him to drown his wife.

In this American Film Institute-subsidized short subject, Fionnula Flanagan plays a sharp-tongued but compassionate nun, while Peter Lempert is cast as a sullen, emotionally disturbed boy. The title refers to the "thawing" process that occurs when the nun attempts to break through Lempert's wall of silence. Winner of the Oscar for "Best Short Film, Live Action". Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

Based on the book by anthropologist Barbara Myerhoff, this Academy Award-winning short documentary offers a tender portrait of a community of elderly yet resilient Jews living, loving, and at times struggling, in Venice, California. From everyday trials to traditional celebrations, this compassionate portrayal of Eastern European survivors cuts straight to the heart of every viewer and reminds us of the joys and realities of long life. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.

Garry Trudeau's classic characters (Mike Doonesbury, Zonker, etc.) examine how their lifestyles, priorities, and concerns have changed since the end of their idealistic college days in the 1960s. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

An exploration of American escapism through dream sequences. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.

Spaceborne is a 1977 short documentary directed by Philip Dauber. It shows images taken during space missions of the mid-1970s, including images of Skylab, astronauts, and the Earth, later followed by footage from Apollo 17. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

The Flight of the Gossamer Condor tells the inspiring true story of history's first successful human-powered flight. Renowned inventor Dr. Paul MacCready and his team were filmed creating the world-famous pedal-powered airplane as it happened. Producing this film, which documents the development of a man's dream into a scientific and historic achievement was, in itself, an extraordinary effort. There was an immense risk involved in making a commitment to film a scientist's effort at achieving something which had never done before successfully. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2007.

Wallace and Gromit have run out of cheese, and this provides an excellent excuse for the duo to take their holiday to the moon, where, as everyone knows, there is ample cheese. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

Wallace rents out Gromit's former bedroom to a penguin, who takes up an interest in the techno pants created by Wallace. However, Gromit later learns that the penguin is a wanted criminal. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.

Wallace's whirlwind romance with the proprietor of the local wool shop puts his head in a spin, and Gromit is framed for sheep-rustling in a fiendish criminal plot.

As the west rapidly becomes civilized, a pair of outlaws in 1890s Wyoming find themselves pursued by a posse and decide to flee to South America in hopes of evading the law.

The staff of a Korean War field hospital use humor and hijinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war.

From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington is determined to take the reins of power away from the great actress Margo Channing. Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critic sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.

The film is based on a poem by James Weldon Johnson depicting the power of the southern black American preacher's telling of the biblical creation story.

A 1944 propaganda short film produced for the U.S. Treasury Department and intended to boost war bond sales, directed by an uncredited Alfred Hitchcock and starring Jennifer Jones as a nurse's aide. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, from the Academy War Film Collection, in 2008.

An unfinished archival short, in which the titular substance plays a key role in determining an outmoded man’s role in a changing society. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2013.

Two years before Peter Watkins’ Punishment Park (1971), director Penelope Spheeris takes the McCarran Act to its inevitable next step and shows us—via an early use of mockumentary—what the U.S. might be like if potential subversives were simply locked up en masse before they had a chance to subvert anything. 16mm, color, 12 min. Director: Penelope Spheeris.1969. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.

Picking up the story first presented in I Don’t Know (1970), Hats Off to Hollywood (1972) brazenly and brilliantly mixes documentary reality with fully staged recreations/reimaginings of episodes in the lives of Jennifer and Dana, a loving, bickering couple who challenge the notion of homonormativity. Drugs, poverty, disease, bigotry and prostitution all figure into this disarmingly candid and often hilarious film, a remarkable work that is the apotheosis of director Spheeris’ early work, and a luminous signpost leading directly to The Decline of Western Civilization (1979-1997). Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.